'Suspicious incident' cited in fatal BSO shooting

A piece of yellow crime scene tape, pink roses in a vase and a stuffed bear made up a makeshift memorial for Raymond Lawson, who died in a shooting outside a Pompano Beach apartment.

Lawson, who was on probation at the time of his death, was shot and killed Saturday after three Broward Sheriff's Office deputies, in an unmarked car, spotted a "suspicious incident'' and at least one deputy fired his weapon, according to a BSO spokesman.

Deputy Edwin Gomez, 30, a five-year veteran, was shot near his left shoulder in the gunfire, BSO said.

Lawson, who died at the scene, had a gun, according to BSO.

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Two bullets also struck the rear window of neighbor Tammy Rozier's green SUV, which was taped up Monday morning.

Gomez was in good condition at North Broward Medical Center Monday afternoon, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

BSO released little additional details about the weekend shooting, saying the inci-dent is still under investigation.

"Our detectives are conducting a thorough investi-gation," BSO spokesman Hugh Graf said Monday. "And we hope to have more information soon."

Records show BSO arrested Lawson in 1999, when he was 15 years old, for carrying a concealed weapon. Two years later, he was arrested on armed robbery charges, records show. He was on felony probation at the time of his death, BSO said.

But Jacquelyn Poitier, the mother of Lawson's girlfriend, said he hasn't been in trouble since he got out of prison about three years ago.

"That boy has been no trouble," she said Monday. ‘‘They're making him out to be this bad person. When you're young, you do things, but that kid's been on the straight and narrow since he got out of jail."

At around 4:20 p.m. Satur-day, three deputies approached a man sitting in a silver Ford Crown Victoria parked in front of the one-story white apartment build-ing with teal trim at 236 NW 11th St.

The deputies, members of BSO's Selective Enforcement Team, "came upon a suspi-cious incident in a known drug dealing area," Graf said.

He would not say what the incident was. The team han-dles everything from drugs to prostitution to water restric-tion violations, Graf said.

Lawson was leaving Poitier's apartment at the time of the shooting. He has been dating her 21-year-old daughter, Delania, since he got out of prison.

Lawson got a call Saturday afternoon from his mother asking him to come home to Fort Lauderdale, Poitier said.

Poitier said her daughter walked him outside, the cou-ple kissed inside Lawson's

car and Delania got out to return to the apartment.

She turned around and that's when she saw the shooting, said her mother, who was inside. Poitier said she heard about five shots and her daughter's screams.

"She gave him a kiss good-bye," Poitier said. "She didn't know it was going to be the last kiss."

Lawson and Delania would hang out at her apart-ment on weekends, playing video games, watching TV and ordering in Chinese food.

Poitier said Lawson was always polite, often referring to her as Ms. Jackie.

Now, she said, she's afraid to leave the apartment.

"I'm scared to death," she said. "I don't know who's going to come around the corner."

Saturday's incident made neighbor Rozier nervous also.

"It's really close to home," she said.

Her 3-year-old daughter alerted her to the shots Satur-day.

"She said ‘Mommy, they're shooting,' '' said Rozier, who has been living in the complex with her three children for two years. "We thought it was firecrackers. I looked out that's when I saw the officer was bleeding."